HellKat by Robyn Roze Read Free Book Online Page A

off the rails, with him .
    After the embarrassing debacle at the office with Tucker Williams, Cassie hadn’t let Kat off the hook. She’d camped outside her apartment and pounded on the door until Kat had finally caved and let her inside. Once she’d confessed the sordid details, Cassie had become an avowed Tucker Williams hater and had given Kat the love and support she’d needed to put the embarrassing fiasco behind her. Their thirty year friendship trumped business.
    After swearing Cassie to secrecy, Kat had sealed the tainted memory shut, never to be spoken of again. The fallout from the Montana mountain man had realigned her focus and her goals.
    A positive from a negative.
    Kat pulled herself from the introspection as the echo of chatter in her parents’ wide penthouse foyer filtered into her consciousness. She scanned the gathering; nieces and nephews and sisters-in-law, their heads bobbing in conversation and polite laughter. Kat sighed in relief, another James family function marked off the calendar, overdone with her mother’s customary flair for pomp and circumstance. Kyle, her youngest brother, had missed the festooned Easter celebration. He was still out of the country on business.
    Lucky bastard.
    Kyle had always made these photo ops more bearable for her. Yes, a professional photographer had been hired to snap candid pictures of her pretentious family, and said pictures would end up in the society pages.
    Kat waited a safe distance from the fray, her eyes skipping around the area, noting smiles, handshakes, and nods. She wished she felt closer to these people. They were her family after all. But she’d learned over the years that blood is not always thicker than water. Kat’s backbone and independence had been a detriment, had made her an outsider from the beginning in this Machiavellian cast.
    She searched for Grant, her date, locating him as he held their coats at the other side of the vestibule. Unfortunately, her mother had him pinned. Poor Grant.
    An artful bump to her back jerked Kat’s attention to her least favorite person of the bunch.
    “He’s far better than you deserve,” Parker said in her ear, with a sneer. Her middle brother was discreet as always, no witnesses to hear his snarky, whispered insults.
    Asshole.
    She subtly angled her heeled foot behind her and Parker stumbled over it. He quickly straightened himself and shot a scathing look her way. She smirked at him, satisfaction written on her face. No one around them seemed to notice their scuffle; business as usual in the James family. She’d confronted Parker more than once in the past about his nasty attitude toward her. But he’d only ever answered her with cold, hard stares. She no longer cared why he disliked her. She had far better uses for her time than giving a damn about her haughty brother.
    Kat’s focus resettled on the man to whom Parker had referred: Grant Collins, the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. He stood listening, trapped in a corner and patient as always, while Sarah James fawned over him. Her bejeweled wrist was draped around his arm. Kat considered intervening but instead enjoyed the view of her attractive date.
    Grant’s exterior had been a slam dunk at first sight when she’d met him after a run in Central Park. Kat had been relaxing on a bench, watching the radio-controlled sailboats and yachts at Conservatory Water. Grant had stopped nearby to stretch and cool down after his own workout. Then he’d sat quietly, unobtrusively, on the other end of the bench, eventually introducing himself.
    After an hour of easy conversation, they’d walked to a nearby deli and ordered sandwiches and smoothies and then spent several hours talking, getting to know each other. It hadn’t taken Kat long to size up Grant. He’d definitely fit the bill on the outside and seemed to be a good man on the inside too. And after a few dates, she’d found herself ticking off a number of items on her long checklist: